The thesis goes digital

With a vision of electrons prevailing over paper, Charles J. Greenberg, M.L.S., M.Ed., head of reference services at the Cushing/ Whitney Medical Library, has launched the Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library (YMTDL), an online collection of the theses required of all Yale medical students.

The YMTDL debuted in February at http://ymtdl.med.yale.edu. The Internet, Greenberg said, has become the “number-one way” of accessing medical research, as foot traffic falls at the library.

Greenberg’s biggest challenge has been to convince students that publishing online won’t harm their chances of publication later in a scholarly journal. Students may delay online publication for up to three years, but abstracts are automatically included on the website.

Last year 12 students agreed to provide their theses; this year Greenberg hopes to get 40. Eventually, he expects that all theses will be available online.